FLOWERS FIGURE ON FOOD MENU IN EAST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 27 (Supplement)

FLOWERS FIGURE ON FOOD MENU IN EAST.

Florists in the United States of America do a huge annual trade. American women are very fond of flowers, and the increasing 'cost of roses, orchids and other favourites has not tended to cut down the floral business; but it never occurs to any of the flower buyers to eat them. East of Suez, flowers form a part of the daily menu in a great many places. This is because there is not enough vegetable matter to feed the teeming millions, most of whom are vegetarians and eschew the use of meat. Certain desert tribes who cannot find other food on the trackless wastes they travel actually make meals oulf of locusts.

In Madras and other parts of India, as well as in the more remote sections of Afghanistan, flowers are cultivated for food. In Southern India, where the population is mainly vegetarian, lotus jelly is considered a great delicacy, and, spread on bread, is eaten by millions of children and adults. It is for sale by street vendors. ' r he petals of the young lotus flowers . re soaked in sugar solution and boiled until they form a stiff paste, w’hich is powdered with more sugar and moulded. It is said that the lotus jelly has slightly narcotic qualities, which may explain its great popularity.

The Indians of the north go in for shrub-cakes, made with blossoms, ghee and bazaar sugar. These cakes, which cost 2d each in the bazaars, lead to abdominal troubles, but the natives, who enjoy them, attribute subsequent digestive troubles to other matters In Ceylon the natives use butter-blossom, which is boiled and flavoured with cinnamon or cloves. This is one of the few flower foods which European visitors have been able to enjoy. The Chinese use flowers a great deal in their cookery. They cook lilies in milk and eat candied jasmine The Japanese, too, have a keen appetite for flowers, a taste which is shared by the Egyptians, who seive rose-petal jelly, prepared with powdered sugar, water and isinglass.